veredes, arquitectura y divulgación VADo2 Los Prototipos | Page 104

VAD. 02 | Diciembre 2019 | ISSN 2659-9139 e-ISSN 2659-9198
ISSN 2659-9139 e-ISSN 2659-9198 | Diciembre 2019 | 02.VAD
Conclusions
Figure 6. Leões flour factory-Arts and
Architecture School of the University
of Évora. Exterior corridor. Author:
Sheila Palomares Alarcón, 2017.
of the European milling factories which emerged in 19th-century Europe.
It was one of the 31 modern factories built in Alentejo (districts of Beja,
Évora and Portalegre) between the late 19th century and the 1930s. This
modern system consisted of a high-rise construction with at least three
floors built to accommodate all the necessary machinery.
This system, known as the “Austro-Hungarian System”, was characteri-
sed by the use of cylinder gravity milling, sieving plans and steam and/or
power motors. Interestingly, in Portugal, the system was rarely provided
and assembled by a single company. Instead, the machinery was impor-
ted from different sources and was often second-hand. In Alentejo, large-
ly until the 1940s, a significant number of the milling factories were put
together by “Bühler and Hermanos”, a subsidiary of the Swiss company
Bühler based in Madrid.
Studying this factory allows obtaining important data to understand the
development of the flour industry in the Alentejo region. Its historical im-
portance, the role it played in the region’s economy, the mark it left in the
urban fabric of the city of Évora, and the reference that its products were
at both the local and the national levels alone are aspects that justify its
value as heritage. To these we should add the impact it had on the local
population that was directly or indirectly connected to this factory, becau-
se those who didn’t work there had relatives or acquaintances who did,
and that is the reason why the Leões factory is part of their memories.
After years of neglect, reusing this building as a university centre allowed
it to be preserved and given new life. The intervention carried out in this
building tried to preserve important aspects of its architecture; however,
due to the lack of contextualization of the building in what regards the
region and various historical periods, it failed to preserve its historical
memory, an aspect that should be covered in a future intervention.
The architects were inspired by “all that was new” in the factory and that
did not belong to the original multi-storey building, such as the railway
platform, the canopies, pieces of machinery, facilities, etc. to design new
elements made of steel.
16 Palomares, “Pan y aceite...”, 2016.
That is the reason why this material is found in all the new structures, the
porch, or the cafeteria. Similarly, the installations are visible to recall all
the machinery that used to be found inside the factory, giving the com-
plex a strong industrial character 16 .
At the end of our research work, we can conclude by saying that some of
the architectural heritage that is currently more neglected is of industrial
origin, as it is associated with the economic activity and, therefore, reflects
the evolution of companies that are created, developed, expanded, and
sometimes disappear; interventions like this one encourage us to think
that there will be fewer and fewer examples of buildings and complexes
that are lost along the way.
However, there is the need to establish clear intervention criteria, as well
as a protection, enhancement, and dissemination policy that takes into
account, not only architectural aspects, but also the various historical, te-
chnological, and territorial contexts, to enable a comprehensive and inte-
grated understanding of the buildings. Furthermore, there is the need to
find ways of preserving memory and raising the population’s awareness
through education, in order to promote its engagement with this heritage.
However, despite the fact that the structure of the Leões Factory has been
preserved, as in other interventions in buildings associated with our in-
dustrial heritage, the same did not happen with its memory, as there are
no references to its glorious past as one of the largest industrial com-
plexes in Alentejo. The Leões flour and pasta factory is a typical example
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ANA CARDOSO DE MATOS | SHEILA PALOMARES ALARCÓN | ARMANDO QUINTAS. The origins of the “Leões” flour and pasta factory [...] pp. 94-106
ANA CARDOSO DE MATOS | SHEILA PALOMARES ALARCÓN | ARMANDO QUINTAS. The origins of the “Leões” flour and pasta factory [...] pp. 94-106
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